willing to take service with us, and enter themselves on board, it is true that the gunner and some other men offered themselves to us, and we had accepted of them, and we thought it was our part to accept or not to accept of such men as we thought fit. As for what was among themselves, that we had nothing to do with: that, if we had been publicly warned by them not to have entertained any of their men, but with consent of the whole body, then indeed we should have had reason to be cautious; otherwise, we were not in the least concerned about it. That it is true, we refused to let their boats come on board us, being assured that they came in a hostile manner, either to take away the men by force, which had been entered in our service, or perhaps even to seize the ship itself; and why else was the first boat followed by two more, full of men, armed and prepared to attack us? That we not only came in a friendly manner to them, but resolved to continue in friendship with them, if they thought fit to use us as friends; but that, considering what part of the world we were in, and what their circumstances were, they must allow us to be upon our guard, and not put ourselves in a condition to be used ill.
While he was talking thus with them in the cabin, he had ordered a can of flip to be made, and given their men in the boat, and every one a dram, but would not suffer them to come on board; however, one or two of them got leave to get in at one of the ports, and got between decks among our men; here they made terrible complaints of their condition, and begged hard to be entertained in our service; they were full of money, and gave twenty or thirty pieces of eight among our men, and by this present prevailed on two men to speak to my mate, who appeared as captain, to take the boat's crew on board.
The mate very gravely told the two ambassadors of it, and added, that, seeing they were come with a flag of truce, he would not stop their men without their consent, but the men being so earnest, he thought they would do better not to oppose them. The ambassadors, as I call them, opposed it, however, vehemently, and at last desired to go and talk with the men, which was granted them readily.
When they came into their boat, their men told them plainly, that, one and all, they would enter themselves with their countrymen; that they had been forced already to turn pirates, and they thought they might very justly turn honest men again by force, if they could not get leave to do it peaceably; and that, in short, they would go on shore no more; that, if the ambassadors desired it, they would set them on shore with the boat, but as for themselves, they would go along with the new captain.
When the ambassadors saw this, they had no more to do but to be satisfied, and so were set on shore where they desired, and their men stayed on board.
During this transaction, my mate had sent a full account to me of all that had passed, and had desired me to come on board and give farther directions in all that was to follow; so I took our supercargo and Captain Merlotte along with me, and some more of our officers, and went to them. It was my lot to come on board just when the aforesaid ambassadors were talking with my mate, so I heard most of what they had to say, and heard the answer my mate gave them, as above, which was extremely to my satisfaction; nor did I interrupt him, or take upon me any authority, though he would very submissively have had me shown myself as captain, but I bade him go on, and sat down, as not concerned in the affair at all.
After the ambassadors were gone, the first thing I did, was, in the presence of all the company, and, having before had the opinion of those I brought with me, to tell my second mate how well we were all satisfied with his conduct, and to declare him captain of the ship that he was in; only demanding his solemn oath, to be under orders of the great ship, as admiral, and to carry on no separate interests from us; which he thankfully accepted, and, to give him his due, as faithfully performed, all the rest of our very long voyage, and through all our adventures.
It was upon my seeming intercession, that he gave consent to the boat's crew, who brought the ambassadors, to remain in our service, and set their statesmen on shore; and in the end, I told him that as far as about one hundred and fifty, or two hundred men, he should entertain whom he thought fit. Thus having settled all things in the ship to our satisfaction, we went back to our great ship the next day.
I had not been many hours on board, till I was surprised with the firing of three muskets from the shore; we wondered what could be the meaning of it, knowing that it was an unusual thing in that place, where we knew the natives of the country had no fire-arms; so we could not tell what to make of it, and therefore took no notice, other than, as I say, to wonder at it. About half-an-hour after, we heard three muskets more, and still, not knowing anything of the matter, we made them no return to the signal. Some time after three muskets were fired again, but still we took no notice, for we knew nothing of what return was to be made to it.
When night come on, we observed two great fires upon two several hills, on that part of the shore opposite to us, and after that, three rockets were fired, such as they were, for they were badly constructed; I suppose their gunner was ill provided for such things: but all signified nothing; we would have made any return to them that had been to be understood, but we knew nothing of any agreed signal; however, I resolved that I would send a boat on shore, well manned, to learn, if possible, what the meaning of all this was; and, accordingly, in the morning, I sent our long-boat and shallop on shore, with two-and-thirty men in them both, to get intelligence; ordering them, if possible, to speak with somebody, before they went on shore, and know how things stood; that then, if it was a party of the pirates, they should by no means come near them, but parley at a distance, till they knew the meaning of their behaviour.
As soon as my men came near the shore, they saw plainly that it was a body of above a hundred of the pirates; but seeing them so strong, they stood off, and would not come nearer, nor near enough to parley with them; upon this, the men on shore got one of the islanders' canvass boats, or rather boats made of skins, which are but sorry ones at best, and put off, with two men to manage the sail, and one sitter, and two paddles for oars and away they came towards us, carrying a flag of truce, that is to say, an old white rag; how they came to save so much linen among them all, was very hard to guess.
Our men could do no less than receive their ambassador, and a flag of truce gave no shadow of apprehension, especially considering the figure they made, and that the men on shore had no other boats to surprise or attack us with; so they lay by upon their oars till they came up, when they soon understood who they were, viz. – that they were the gunner's selected men; that they came too late to have their signal perceived from the other ship, which was gone out of sight of the place they were directed to; that they had with great difficulty, and five days and nights' marching, got through a woody and almost impassable country to come at us; that they had fetched a circuit of near a hundred miles to avoid being attacked by their comrades, and that they were pursued by them with their whole body, and therefore they begged to be taken on board; they added, if they should be overtaken by their comrades, they should be all cut in pieces, for that they had broke away from them by force, and moreover had been obliged, at the first of their pursuit, to face about and fire among them, by which they had killed six or seven of them, and wounded others, and that they had sworn they would give them no quarter, if they could come fairly up with them.
Our men told them they must be contented to remain on shore, where they were, for some time, for that they could do nothing till they had been on board, and acquainted their captain with all the particulars; so they came back immediately to me for orders.
As to me, I was a little uneasy at the thoughts of taking them on board; I knew they were a gang of pirates at best, and what they might do I knew not, but I sent them this message, that though all their tale might be very good for aught I knew, yet that I must take so much time as to send an express to the captain of the other ship, to be informed of the truth of it; and that if he brought a satisfactory answer, I would send for them all on board.
This was very uncomfortable news to them, for they expected to be surrounded every hour by their comrades, from whom they were to look for no mercy; however, seeing no remedy, they resolved to march about twenty miles farther south, and lie by in a place near the sea, where we agreed to send to them; concluding that their comrades not finding them near
